Untold Stories from L’Anse aux Meadows: Highlights from the Wooden Collections

Summary

This is an abstract from the "Current Research and Challenges in Arctic and Subarctic Cultural Heritage Studies" session, at the 89th annual meeting of the Society for American Archaeology.

L’Anse aux Meadows, a UNESCO World Heritage Site and the first European settlement in North America, is located in the northernmost part of modern-day Newfoundland, Canada. During the eleventh century, Norse Greenlanders established a frontier site for short periods of time, a “gateway to resources” further to the south. During the archaeological investigations at L’Anse aux Meadows by Parks Canada in the 1970s, large quantities of worked wood were discovered. While only a handful of artifacts were identified, most of the collection consists of leftovers from woodworking activities, as well as unworked twigs and branches. In the last decade in particular, small finds, construction timbers, and boat parts excavated in other Norse settlements across the North Atlantic have started to get the attention they deserve. However, the numerous woodchips and twigs are still too frequently left aside. At L’Anse aux Meadows, this material is common and has the best potential for digging into past woodworking strategies. In this presentation, I highlight the previous research done on the wooden collections from L’Anse aux Meadows and trace a path for future work.

This Resource is Part of the Following Collections

• Current Research and Challenges in Arctic and Subarctic Cultural Heritage Studies   •
• Society for American Archaeology 89th Annual Meeting, New Orleans, LA (2024)

Keywords

Record Identifiers

Abstract Id(s): 39895.0